The six Ionian islands, shepherding their satellites down the west coast of the mainland, float on the haze of the Adriatic, their green, even lush, silhouettes coming as a shock to those more used to the stark outlines of the Aegean. The fertility of the land is a direct result of the heavy rains that sweep over the archipelago - and especially Corfu - from October to March, so if you visit at this time, come prepared.

 

The islands were the Homeric realm of Odysseus, centred on Ithaca (modern Itháki) and here alone of all modern Greek territory (except for Lefkádha) the Ottomans never held sway. After the fall of Byzantium, possession passed to the Venetians and the islands became a keystone in Venice's maritime empire from 1386 until its collapse in 1797. Most of the population must have remained immune to the establishment of Italian as the official language and the arrival of Roman Catholicism, but Venetian influence remains evident in the architecture of the island capitals, despite damage from a series of earthquakes.

On Corfu, the Venetian legacy is mixed with that of the British , who imposed a military "protectorate" over the Ionian islands at the close of the Napoleonic Wars, before ceding the archipelago to Greece in 1864. There is, however, no question of the islanders' essential Greekness: the poet Dhionyssios Solomos, author of the national anthem, hailed from the Ionians, as did Nikos Mantzelos, who provided the music, and the first Greek president, Ioannis Kapodhistrias.

Today, tourism is the dominating influence, especially on Corfu (Kérkyra), which was one of the first Greek islands established on the package-holiday circuit. Parts of its coastline are among the few stretches in Greece with development to match the Spanish costas , and in summer even its distinguished old capital, Kérkyra Town, wilts beneath the onslaught. However, the island is large enough to retain many of its charms and is perhaps the most scenically beautiful of the group. Parts of Zákynthos (Zante) - which with Corfu has the Ionians' most oversubscribed beaches - have also gone down the same tourist path, but elsewhere the island's pace and scale of development is a lot less intense. Little Páxi is rather tricky to reach and lacks the water to support large-scale hotels, but still gets surprisingly packed in August, while Lefkádha - which is connected to the mainland by a causeway and "boat bridge" - has, so far at least, quite a low-key straggle of tourist centres and only two major resorts, despite boasting some excellent beaches. Perhaps the most rewarding duo for island-hopping are Kefalloniá and Itháki , the former with a series of "real towns" and a life in large part independent of tourism, the latter, Odysseus's rugged capital, protected by an absence of sand. The Ionian islands' claims to Homeric significance are manifested in the countless bars, restaurants and streets named after characters in the Odyssey , including the "nimble-witted" hero himself, Penelope, Nausicaa, Calypso and Cyclops.